"The pending subject in schools is to teach to eat"

Improving the life of diabetic patients was what promoted María Teresa Lord Rodríguez to found in the year 1986 in Santiago the Compostela de Diabeticos Association, of which she is president.A ailment that will address through a workshop on April 25 at Casa da Botica, in Loimil (A Estrada).

-His involvement for this disease also attends to personal reasons?

-No.I am not a diabetic but I am a nurse at the Conxo hospital in the Unit of Food Disorders and when working in Endocrinology there are many diabetic patients you see.Years ago, together with other colleagues, we thought there had to be an association to solve all the doubts that these patients raised.Thus the association in Compostela was born.We start with 30 partners and today we are 800;And don't think we are many.There are more sick people but people are still very reluctant to associate.They diagnose the disease and throw as they can.We, through the association, every year we try to give visibility to the disease on World Diabetes Day with the installation of a tent in Santiago in which we offer information.

-What is diabetes?

-It is a chronic disease that appears because the pancreas does not manufacture the amount of insulin that the human body needs, or the factory but of a lower quality.It is essential to educate patients to control their diabetes properly since they can carry other pathologies such as cardiovascular, neurological, retinopathies or nephropathies diseases.Note that we can find type 1 diabetes, type 2 and gestational that can be developed during pregnancy.In that case, insulin increases to increase energy reserves.

-For the diagnosis of the disease, what is the first great concern?

-The diet.That is what worries the most.It was what led me to write a book;«Traditional Galician cuisine for diabetics», in which it can be verified that a diabetic can eat - and very well - with varied, healthy and balanced dishes.Having to click is another of the great fears of the sick.What we have to do is provide them with a good food education and make them understand and assimilate that they have to live with the disease.

-The children's diabetes experienced a considerable increase in recent years, what is it?

-The increase in child diabetes is very worrying.We have gone from a record of 0.1 % to 5 % today.It must be mean that 14 % of the population is diabetic and in Spain five million people suffering from this ailment are diagnosed.Why this increase?To a large extent to bad eating habits and sedentary lifestyle.I am one of those who think that new technologies are good, but to their fair measure.I think you have to know how to dose its use with other types of activities;See TV or play with the tablet is fine but let's not forget the sport and outdoor games.In the United States, for example, 50 % of children suffer from type 2 diabetes. That is very serious.We cannot allow that to happen in our country.Food is fundamental and I think the pending subject in schools is to teach to eat and how to do it properly.

María Teresa Lord President of the Compostela de Diabeticos Association

"The first great concern of the diagnosis of diabetes is the diet to follow"

"Sedentary lifestyle and bad eating habits led to a rise in cases"

"There are doubts about what can be eaten"

The symptoms and prevention of diabetes awaken concerns and concern among the population.

-How can it be suspected that this ailment is suffered?

-In the main symptoms is the frequency inpee;which is the phenomenon of the wet bed in children, excessive thirst, weakness and tiredness, weight loss, sensation of malaise in the stomach and vomiting in addition to frequent infections.Another symptoms is cloudy view and seeing how cuts or scratches do not just heal or do it but very slowly.Symptomatology can also go through itching or numbness in the hands or feet in addition to the high levels of blood sugar and urine.

-And from the point of prevention, what should we have to influence?

-For type 2 diabetes, which is the one that appears more frequently, being related to obesity can be tried to avoid adopting healthy lifestyle habits.You have to avoid overweight and obesity and perform physical exercise on a regular basis and maintain a healthy food diet, as I previously commented.In addition, to prevent hypoglycemia, the patients must adjust the doses of medicines to their real needs and maintain a regular meal schedule, to the extent possible.

-Are doubts about what can be eaten or not?

-Muchísima.There are doubts about what can be eaten.The first thing people think is that by diabetic you can't eat bread and pasta.You can eat everything, whenever it is healthy and balanced.A diabetic must take moderate amounts of carbohydrates also before performing extraordinary exercises.The sugary is the only thing that is excluded from the diet of a diabetic patient.

-How the importance of workshops like the one that will teach next 25 in Loimil ...

-To workshops in which we contribute the guidelines of how to lead a healthy and appropriate life to the patient's pathology.We open with a breakfast and show the amounts that can be ingested inside a balanced diet.Subsequently in the afternoon we carry out exercises aimed at improving the person's welfare state.It is important to make the diabetics see that, apart from the drug, they must lead a healthy life.

"My recipe book aims to facilitate the lives of the sick and recover potajes"

The free workshop that will be taught in the Da Botica Casa, and for which a maximum of 50 participants of all ages that can be recorded in the Silleda Health Centers, Bandeira and Vila de Cruces are established, will have a specific menuApt for this ailment.Recipes, some that can be found in the book written by María Teresa Lord.

-Why does that traditional recipe book for diabetics?

-He wanted to facilitate the lives of the sick and also recover those potatoes of the grandmothers.Giving talks through the country's villages also allowed me to recover certain recipes ... With all the material I thought about the convenience of capturing it in a book.A dietitian helped me in the process of calculating percentages and at the Higher School of Hospitality were responsible for photographing all dishes.It is a very manageable recipe book with five sections: vegetables and legumes;soups, creams and potajes;meats, fish and seafood and desserts.The only purpose of the book is to facilitate life to the diabetic and is a volume that came to the kitchen professionals such as Ferrán Adriá and Chicote.

-Your help the diabetic does not know borders ...

-I have what I can ... It is true that I developed an initiative to fight diabetes in the town of Merzouga, which is south of Morocco, distributing medications and educating 400 inhabitants on how to face said pathology produced by an excess of an excess ofBlood sugar.